Spent another winter in Arizona. Lots and lots of rain. Someone said we didn't have 10 consecutive days without rain from September/04 thru April/05... and I'm not talking drizzle either. Heavy downpours for from 6-12 hours at a time. Did wonders for the flowers, Yellow flowers everywhere with some purple or red or white here and there.
The flowers also brought out butterflies by the millions (billions?). It was tough driving from late March through mid-April with the butterflies splatting all over the windshield. These had the same coloring as a Monarch butterfly, black and orange patterns but were about 2/3 the size.
Bought a Schwin mountain bike at Wal-Mart and did some cycling on the desert roads where it was flat enough for me. Didn't mind the rocks and stones too much but the washer boards would rattle the fillings right out of your teeth. Didn't care for the paved roads, even with light traffic. No bike lanes and all it would take is one dork yakking to the significant other to drift off to the side and I'd be history.
Coming down out of western Utah, I have a loop I make during the winter. I spend a week or so paddling Lake Meade in Nevada near Las Vegas and in Arizona. Another couple of weeks are spent at Craggy Wash, right next to the Lake Havasu City airport. This is a dry wash you can drive back into and camp with steep, ragged peaks and formations all around, very pretty. You may even see a desert big horn sheep once in a while. The airport has little traffic so there's not much noise.
Lake Havasu City is fairly new, very clean and one of my favorite towns. It was built 40 years ago or so when they dammed the Colorado River yet again, forming Lake Havasu. When they tore the London Bridge (London Bridge is falling down, falling down...) they shipped it from England and reconstructed it at Lake Havasu, believe it or not.
I usually spend a month or so in and around Quartzsite, 60-70 miles to the south. Not in January or February though... that's when thousands and thousands of RVer's flock to this tent city for RV and Gem shows. The real attraction to this area is the firm foundation for miles around that supports a vehicle, rather than sand or soft dirt. The majority of this land is BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land. Many 'snow birds' from the northwest, the great lakes states and Canada winter down here in their motor homes paying $150 for six months rent in the long term visitor areas.
I spend a lot of time in the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge south of Quartzsite and north of Yuma. This land was set aside as a habitat for the desert big horn sheep. You may even see one occasionally. Steep, ragged, jagged mountains provide a great environment for them. There are no hiking trails but it's a great area for just wandering off into the mountains or the desert. At least I thought so until I took a bad fall this year.
The mountains are mostly in the 300-500 foot range. I had been up on one peak and was coming down a steep slope. I had been picking my way down over some lava type ledges with lots of loose stones so I was being extra careful. When I got off the ledges I guess I relaxed a little mentally because something went wrong. I stepped down onto a boulder about 3X2X2 feet and it shifted under my weight and started sliding down the hill. I lost my balance and tumbled head first in front of the boulder. Fortunately it stopped after sliding a couple of feet or I'd be having dinner with the coyotes. If it didn't crush me outright I never would have been able to move it off me.
Unfortunately I hurt myself. I landed on my left side and my hip hurt the worst but healed up in a few days. My neck hurt pretty bad and I knew my elbow was badly cut. I was way out in the back country and wanted to get back to the van before determining just how bad I was hurt so I never even looked. I had tripped and fallen over some brush before this fall and I fell again on the way down... and I knew my shirt sleeve was soaking wet.
When I got back to the van I peeled the bloody shirt off and peeked at my elbow in a mirror. Yuk! A big patch was ripped open, each end of an 'L' about 1 to 1.5 inches long and I saw some white showing through the blood which I assumed to be my crazy bone. I didn't have any peroxide so I cleaned it out with cassette tape cleaner. Then I smeared Vaseline on a bandana and tied that around my elbow. Everything healed nicely after 6 weeks or so. My neck still bothers me a little though.
Yuna is one of my stocking locations for food, etc. and from there I head east on I-8 towards Tucson. One of my stops is the Table Top Mountain area just east of the Barry Goldwater Missile Range. It has most of my requirements for a winter stopover; quiet, private, plenty of places to camp, flat roads for running or biking and nearby mountains for hiking. Lots of giant Saguaro cacti too.
Organ Pipe National Monument on the Mexican border is a good place for hiking as is Saguaro National Park near Tucson. The Lake Prescott area, north of Phoenix off I-17 was a new one for me this year. I traveled up past the far end of the lake into a wilderness area. It leads to the Bradshaw Mountains and then on up to the Prescott National Forest with lots of hiking trails. Personal considerations prevented me from exploring these areas but I hope to return next year.
The Little Harquahala Mountains off I-10 on the way back towards Lake Havasu was another new area for me this year. I stayed close to a week just wandering up and down the hills and peaks. Saw my first horned toad here too.
By mid-April it was getting hot and I was getting bored so I headed north to Lake Meade for another week or so. This time, instead of the regular folks doing security checks at Hoover Dam I was introduced to Homeland Security Officers for the first time. Searches were voluntary (at this time) and I told them to check whatever they wanted.
The only wildlife this winter was a pair of small javalinas that wandered through my camp one day while I was inside the van. Javalinas are skinny, pig like critters with a long pointy snout. Several coyotes trotted through camp at different times too.